Dante’s Immortality – Chapter 70

Dante looked into the mirror. “How?”

He could see Melisandre’s coy smile in the mirror’s reflection. “A trained eye.”

Looking at the perfect fitting suit in the mirror, he couldn’t help but acknowledge Melisandre’s ‘trained eye’. It was hard to believe that she could have it put together without even measuring him.

True, the shoulders were a bit stiff, and the sleeve’s cuffs were slightly baggier than he would have preferred on the coat, but apparently, that was all for the looks. The slim fitting black suit with white trim seemed to be perfectly snug in every other section of his body.

“It goes without saying that it fits, but you didn’t put on the glove.”

Dante looked down at the strange glove. He had tried to put it on, but couldn’t understand how to wear it. “Could you help me put it on?”

Melisandre nodded. “Fine, but pay attention.”

He got it started by wearing the actual glove section on his left hand, which looked generic, but allowed Melisandre to deal with the dangling wires and straps of leather.

Melisandre grabbed the strips of leather and began carefully wrapping them around his wrist, threading the wires through the strips carefully as she went. He tried to remember the process, but the speed that she assembled it - and the sheer number of steps required - made memorizing it close to impossible.

In the span of only a few minutes, Melisandre was finished. She placed a spare dagger into it and began to instruct him on how to use it. “Fold your hand toward your wrist until the wire catches the hook.”

He did as she instructed, and there was a slight click noise as the taught wire caught the hook.

“Now, snap your hand back quickly and catch the dagger.”

Dante snapped his hand back and felt the taut wires give, shooting the dagger out. He quickly grabbed it before it escaped his reach. It wasn’t nearly as smooth as it could have been with his manipulate blade, but the lack of mana drain was nice.

“Unfortunately, this is one of the guild’s more rudimentary gloves, so you’ll need to manually reset it after each use.”

It definitely wasn’t the method that Victoria used, her movements were far more fluent when she drew a dagger.

Melisandre stepped forward and reset the mechanism, and he was happy to see how simple it was compared to assembling it. She just adjusted two wires, then reengaged the dagger catch.

“Oh! That reminds me. While you were getting dressed, the weapons that you ordered arrived. I was pleased to see that you took at least one of my suggestions.”

There was clear resentment in Melisandre’s tone. “Your other ‘suggestions’ were idiotic.”

Melisandre was taken aback. “I think you would have looked far better with shorter hair, and a touch of makeup to clear up your complexion wouldn’t have hurt.”

Dante rolled his eyes. It was bad enough that he had to get a manicure and pedicure with Olivia, there was no way he was going to feminize himself further with makeup. Besides, he did get his hair trimmed, Melisandre was just upset that he hadn’t followed the instructions that she sent with Olivia. “By the way, I had a question that I was hoping you could answer.”

One of Melisandre’s eyebrows raised. “Oh?”

“Why did Victoria leave me with you?”

Melisandre paused for a fraction of a second, then shrugged. “She wants me to teach you how to handle yourself around others. Go collect Olivia, I need to get ready.”

After getting the answer to his question, he didn’t know what to think. At first he was surprised, then he remembered the conversation he had with Victoria on their way to Desas. It seemed that his offhand remark to Victoria about knowing who to trust had drastically changed his training, and he couldn’t help but feel grateful.

Still, Melisandre didn’t seem to be too worried about training him. “Shouldn’t we be doing that instead of going to a feast then?”

Melisandre waved her hand dismissively. “We’ll get around to it. Now, get out.”

Somewhat disgruntled, Dante walked out of the room, grabbed the bundle of weapons, and then went to check on Olivia - per Melisandre’s instructions.

He only had to knock on her door a single time before it swung open, and upon seeing Olivia, he couldn’t help but freeze in place.

Olivia looked absolutely stunning. Her form-fitting red colored dress clung to her curves snugly, forming to her figure almost perfectly until it reached her accentuated waist and flared out into a skirt that reached the floor. And Despite the cleavage that she showed, it looked nothing but classy. It was all highlighted by her makeup, which perfectly matched the red theme, and her blond curls, which were tied back into an intricate braid.

Olivia saw his expression and smiled charmingly. “So, how do I look?”

After checking to make sure Olivia hadn’t used a mental attack on him, Dante cleared his throat and broke out of his trance. “Honestly, you look stunning.”

“How gentlemanly.” Olivia’s charming smile turned into a mischievous one as she looked down at the bundle of weapons he was holding. “Want to come in and show off your sword?”

Dante let out a sigh. That moment was ruined. “I would, but I think we should wait for Melisandre. Why don’t I show you the new weapons out here?”

Olivia began to pout. “Fine.”

He pulled the sword and two daggers out of the bundle. As suggested by Melisandre, the sword and one of the daggers had the blue tint that symbolized Ethel steel. Both were etched with intricate enchantment runes and lines, and both were enchanted twice.

Olivia grabbed the sword. “Wow, it’s so pretty!”

Reluctantly, he had to agree. Something about the gold lion with ruby eyes that was crafted into a pommel really did bother him though. It just seemed so pretentious and eye-catching.

Both the sword and dagger had one tier 2 world essence gathering enchantment, they would make his world essence manipulation far more proficient. The sword also had a tier two poison enchantment. Apparently, it was the best enchantment for a drawn-out fight and had a stacking effect, where each cut with the enchantment activated would further poison the enemy. The parrying dagger’s tier 2 enchantment was a gravity enchantment. It wasn’t his first choice, but Melisandre’s note said that it would allow him to block attacks from opponents with much higher strength.

The second dagger was completely black. The Mazus steel allowed for a single tier 3 enchantment, and for his hidden blade, Melisandre advised a tier 3 paralysis enchantment. Apparently, a tier 3 paralysis enchantment would be effective on anyone with less than 30 Constitution, stunning them for several seconds. It was more than enough time to deal with almost anyone.

Of course, Olivia was only interested in the sword.

“Now that you have two swords, which one will you use?”

It was actually a fairly good question. Dante glanced down to the violet hilted sword that was in the scabbard on his waist. “I’m not sure, both of them have their uses.”

The daggers were easy though, he quickly placed the parrying dagger in its designated location – a hidden scabbard that Melisandre had added to his coat. And placed the black dagger into the mechanism on his left wrist.

Olivia seemed to ponder over the swords as he stashed away the daggers. “Why don’t you just wear both?”

That was definitely something he considered, but didn’t think it would be acceptable. “Wouldn’t that draw too much attention to me? I doubt many people walk around with two swords.”

“Actually, carrying two swords is currently in style in Desas. One sword for fighting, the other ornate, for the look.”

That made things quite simple. Even if he didn’t plan on getting into any fights during the feast, especially over a woman, it would be nice to carry the two swords with him to be safe.

As Dante strapped on the second scabbard, and Olivia handed his sword back, the door to Melisandre’s room opened, and this time, he was sure that he was the victim of a mental attack.

Melisandre carried the same red theme, but her black hair and mature air combined with her far curvier figure put her far above Olivia. That wasn’t to take away from how good Olivia looked, there was just no comparing the two.

Melisandre saw gaping expression and smirked. “I take it you approve?”

Dante could only nod.

Olivia poked him in the side. “Next time, it would be polite to react to our appearances equally.”

Again, he nodded silently.

Melisandre looked delighted, she seemed to feed off of their reactions. “Warlord Auron’s carriage is already waiting outside, let’s go.”